I've submitted this in the romance section because that where I believe it should be.
It's a Romance which skirts in part with erotic couples and group sex. But ultimately it is the story of the conclusion of a rather unusual thirteen year romance between the main characters.
I could have posted it in any of the groups I mentioned.
I can't thank Romantic1 enough for the time he spent reviewing and editing this story
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Part 1
Retirement.
England the present;
I looked at the image on the monitors for one last time. Then I looked down at the patient on the table.
I told her, "That's it Mrs. Malone, we're all done, we've opened the blockage in your renal artery and the stent is in place. We just need to remove the tube that's in your leg and we can send you back to the ward."
I turned to my Senior Registrar, "Dave would you mind finishing up here? She's going to need a closure device." I looked at the clock on the wall of the Angio suite. "As of two minutes ago I officially retired."
"Sure thing boss, thanks for the help, I was struggling there," he replied. "I didn't think I was ever going to get across that stenosis."
"Ex-boss," I reminded him. "And it was just a case of using the right guide wire."
"True but I would never have thought of using a coronary guiding catheter and wire."
I pulled my gloves and my bloody surgical gown off and tossed them in the bin. I walked to the control room and hung up my lead coat. My lead glasses went into my pocket of my scrubs. I stretched, trying to work out the kinks in my spine.
Mila, the radiographer came over to me. She looked up at me, "Now you're re-tired Dr Fitzpatrick I can finally do this," and she stood on tiptoe and wrapped her arms round my neck and gave me a long sensual kiss that had my toes curling. She moved back panting slightly and blushed as our colleagues gave us a round of applause.
"Damn, I need to retire more often," I said, and then I bent down and kissed her again. "Thank you Mila." I looked around the room; I was going to miss this crowd.
I spoke to all of them, "Will I see you all at my place tomorrow?" There were a lot of nods and yes's from round the room. I had my own retirement party planned, and I sure hoped Mila was there with more of her kisses.
"Who else is going Mike?" Ann, the scrub nurse asked.
I replied, "Just the people I like." We both laughed.
"Good, does that mean I might get a kiss like that," she asked.
I laughed, "If you play your cards right and treat this old man properly, you could get lucky." I squeezed her shoulder in an affectionate gesture.
My official retirement party had been last week. It had been hosted by the hospital and populated with mostly the usual bores from my work; I'd missed seeing the people I liked. I'd arraigned a more informal do for Saturday for those people I wanted to say goodbye too properly.
I received a few more kisses and handshakes before I made it to the sanctuary of my office - my now empty office, the door standing open. Sally Fox, my secretary was packing away the last of my personal items into a box. I stood in the door and ran my fingers over the gold lettering watching her.
Professor M. Fitzpatrick,
Director of Radiology.
She came over and hugged me. Sally had been my secretary for the past thirteen years and a lot more than that for the past twelve. She'd arrived straight from the local college. A beautiful innocent eighteen year old redhead looking so nervous that all I'd wanted to do was wrap her protectively in my arms. Now I saw an even more beautiful and extremely competent woman.
She looked at me, then pointed at a photo on the desk, "I left that for you, I didn't want to pack it away with the rest of the stuff."
"Thanks," I sat down and picked it up. The face that looked out at me was that of Linda, my late wife. She'd died in a car crash twelve years earlier leaving me to bring up our twin girls, Gillian and Julia. They'd only been thirteen when she had died. Now they are both twenty-five and married, and have children.
I held my hand out to Sally. She came and sat on my lap and gave me a kiss. "I'm going to miss you boss."
"No regrets?" I asked.
She replied, "Never a one."
********************
The beginning.
England the Past;
Six months after Linda's death, I had reached my lowest point. The girls were staying with my sister and their cousins for the summer. I was drinking myself to sleep almost every night. I don't know how I was able to work. I know my colleagues covered for me a lot but it couldn't continue.
Sally had taken it upon herself to straighten me out. She had appeared one night on my doorstep; I had been half drunk and looked like an unshaven and un-showered slob. She took one look at me and had marched me into the bathroom. She'd forced me stand under the cold shower until I sobered up. I re-member standing in my soaking wet jeans and tee shirt shivering with the cold, my teeth chattering. She had stripped off my wet clothes, and dried me. She had led me to the bedroom and had put me to bed. Then she had undressed, climbed in beside me and held me until I fell asleep in her arms.
She stayed with me for a whole week, throwing or locking away all the alcohol in the house. She looked after me; she fed me and kept me clean. She held me in bed while I cried myself to sleep. She was my sounding board, and finally when she felt I was ready, she made love to me.
She became my closest friend, my confidant, wise beyond her nineteen years. She was the person the girls and I turned to whenever they needed a mother's shoulder. My daughters took to her as a surrogate stepmom even though she was only six years older.
Ever since that time, whenever she sensed I was sinking, she would appear on my doorstep. She might only stay a night or it could be a week. She might come over every few days then not for a couple of months. I asked her on numerous occasions to move in, but each time she would refuse. She told me that it wasn't what I really wanted or needed.
At work she was the epitome of a professional secretary. At home she was my sanity, and she never mixed the two. No one other than my daughters ever knew what she was to me and they never broke her confidence.
I'd thought it was all over four years ago when she met Clive Fox. Within a week they were engaged and less than two months later married. They were such a happy couple; I really liked Clive, although I started to grieve at what I thought my loss would be.
Three weeks after she first met Clive, was the anniversary of Linda's death. I was staring at an unopened bottle of single malt, and my hand was reaching out for it and the promise of oblivion it offered when the doorbell rang. I opened the door and Sally stood there with her overnight bag at her feet.
"What... What are you doing here?"
